What is the role of personalised content?

In increasingly crowded markets – characterised by rapid pace of change, fierce competition, and discerning consumers – a digital content marketing strategy that works harder is more of a need-to-have than a nice-to-have.

For brands who don’t want to get left behind, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach – and prioritising personalised content instead – can be transformative.

What is personalised content?

Adobe defines personalised content as ‘any brand messaging that creates a unique, targeted experience using specific data and information about the customer.’ It aims to make individual consumers feel understood, valued, listened to, and important – the opposite of just another face in the crowd – working on the ethos that the more tailored the content is, the more effective and persuasive it will be.

To make this possible, content personalisation leverages customer data – often via artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – to serve different types of content to different audience segments or individuals within a wider target audience. Content personalisation works best when it meets the consumer where they are in a given moment, factoring in recent purchases, content they’ve interacted with, and what stage of the customer journey they’re at.

Business leaders and marketers can also choose from different types of personalisation, depending on their objectives, their industry, their customers, and the data they have available:

• Demographic personalisation – uses data such as age and gender to anticipate customer needs and wants
• Location-based personalisation – delivers content based on where users are
• Behavioural personalisation – relies on past user behaviour (such as purchase history) to predict future actions and needs
• Interest-based personalisation – delivers topical content based on patterns and interactions.

Examples of content personalisation include personalised product recommendation, personalised offers, personalised emails, dynamic content on website homepages and landing pages, online quizzes and calculators, retargeting ads, and apps.

What are the benefits of personalised content?

More than ever, customers want – and expect – personalisation and connection from brands they engage with. Twilio’s The State of Personalization 2022 report found that nearly half of consumers say they will likely become a repeat buyer after a personalised shopping experience with a brand, and nearly 80% of businesses say consumers spend more (34% on average) when their experience is personalised.

As well as significant return on investment (ROI) on marketing efforts, personalisation strategies help to drive:

•  customer engagement – thanks to highly tailored content, consumers find interactions more interesting and relevant
•  customer loyalty – brand loyalty is built on stronger emotional connections with customers, which in turn increases repeat custom and customer lifetime value (CLV)
• quality leads and higher conversion rates – HubSpot report that personalised CTAs (calls-to-action) on websites see a 202% conversion rate than standard CTAs.
• better customer experiences – quality user experiences increase overall satisfaction, from addressing pain points to accurately surfacing the type of content they require at various touch points
•  competitive advantage – offering highly personalised content that potential customers value can mean the difference between them choosing to spend their money with your business over another.

Personalised experiences and content also supports reduced churn, increased trust and credibility, enhanced social sharing, cross-selling and upselling, deeper customer insights, and more.

What is the process of creating personalised content?

Identifying the most effective, highly personalised content strategy for your needs will depend on the individual industry and audience – and requires some thorough research and planning to really make an impact.

An outline of some of the key steps involved in the content personalisation process:

• Data collection. Use data points and sources such as social media interactions, website analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) data, customer surveys, browsing history, and email campaigns to gather data and insights related to your audience.
• Audience segmentation. Explore key demographics such as buying behaviour, location, and interests to divide your audience into segments and create buyer personas for each.
• Harness AI and data analytics. Leverage algorithms and other relevant technologies to predict customer preferences and enable content personalisation and automation.
• Personalised content creation. Customise website content (for example, different product recommendations, homepage banners, and personalised landing pages), personalise email marketing campaigns (for example, tailored body content, coupons, and segmented email lists), develop personalised social media and content for other marketing channels (such as videos, blogs, and reels),
• Monitor, evaluate, and adjust. Keep an eye on personalised content performance on an ongoing basis, using techniques such as A/B testing to compare elements, refine your approach, and tailor content further.

Throughout the process, keep the concept of content that truly resonates with your target customer, that meaningfully drives engagement, and that authentically enhances their overall experience with your brand front and centre in your mind.

What are the challenges of implementing personalised content in digital marketing strategies?

While consumers do prefer brands to optimise and personalise content, there is nevertheless a balance to strike in terms of data protection and privacy. These issues are front-of-mind for many consumers, and communication or content that feels invasive can result in a negative digital experience. The best personalised approaches combine curated experiences with transparency, trustworthiness, and a commitment to the safe and responsible use of customer data.

Keeping up with personalisation strategies, tools, and technologies can also present challenges for marketing teams. With personalisation fast-becoming mainstream, there’s increased pressure to adopt more sophisticated, multi-channel content marketing approaches. This includes going beyond surface-level personalisation techniques (for example, an email subject line that addresses a consumer by name) and drawing upon reliable, real-time data for the most up-to-the-minute experiences.

Is personalised marketing only relevant to e-commerce brands?

E-commerce sites such as Amazon might be the champions of personalised content marketing, but they are far from the only businesses adopting its tactics and algorithms. In fact, it has relevance across any number of organisations and industries.

Streaming giants such as Netflix and Spotify recommend entertainment based on shows you’ve recently watched and songs you’ve recently listened to, social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram curate feeds based on accounts and content you’ve interacted with, healthcare organisations provide personalised reminders for appointments and health tips, financial services firms suggest credit cards, loans, and services based on your financial behaviour and spending, travel companies design bespoke holiday itineraries based on your likes and dislikes – the list is endless.

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